Friday, September 4, 2015

Shadow of the Hawk (1976)

Something of a cousin to The Manitou (1976) and Prophecy (1979), this loopy flick puts a
Native American spin on the horror genre, spicing its thrills with hokey
material about ancient curses and sacred destinies. Shadow of the Hawk isn’t scary so much as it’s colorful, thanks to
elaborate scenes of the hero fighting a grizzly bear, leading a group of people
across a rope bridge over a massive canyon, and so forth. Yet the
movie’s intensity level lags dangerously low at times because of phoned-in
performances and underdeveloped characters and concepts. Nonetheless, Shadow of the Hawk is watchable in a
Saturday-matinee sort of way, because every so often something enjoyably weird
happens. In one scene, the dignified Native American actor Chief Dan George
yanks the coral snake that just bit him off his face, throws the reptile to the
ground, and uses Indian magic to engulf the snake in flames. Later, George
applies war paint to the movie’s star, Jan-Michael Vincent, so Vincent can have
a mano-a-mano duel with a fellow wearing a bird costume comprising a giant beak
mask and feather “wings” extending below his arms. Oh, and rest assured that
George utters lots of quasi-spiritual dialogue (“Give her strength—let it flow
into her body like the wind in the trees”). Shadow
of the Hawk is ridiculous, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When the
story begins, Old Man Hawk (George) travels from the reservation to the big
city so he can seek help from his grandson, Mike (Vincent), who has left Native
American culture behind. Through contrived circumstances, Mike agrees to help
and brings along Maureen (Marilyn Hassett), a pretty reporter whom he’s just
met.Old Man Hawk persuades Mike
and Maureen that he’s engaged in a battle with the spirit of an ancient witch,
and that matters of some consequence hinge on the outcome of the battle. The
trio ventures into the woods to find and confront the ancient spirit, leading
to deadly episodes whenever the witch uses its powers to turn the natural world
against the heroes.

Directed with indifference by TV hack George McCowan, who
made a handful of B-movies including the absurd creature feature Frogs (1972), Shadow of the Hawk has some nice scenery, and it’s novel that many
of the big fright scenes happen in broad daylight. (Unfortunately, this visual
choice reveals that the “grizzly” fighting Vincent is a dude in a questionable
bear costume.) The superficiality of the story is helpful in that it’s possible
to watch the movie without utilizing any actual brain function, and hurtful in
that it’s not possible to care what happens. George manages to avoid looking
embarrassed, no small accomplishment, while Vincent seems completely vacant and
Hassett merely whimpers her way through silly damsel-in-distress scenarios. Anyway,
here’s an odd piece of Jan-Michael Vincent trivia that’s related to this movie:
The pilot episode of the cheesetastic ’80s action show Airwolf, in which Vincent plays an adventurer named Stringfellow
Hawke, is titled “Shadow of the Hawke.” I’d like to believe that someone on the
Airwolf team had a mischievous sense
of humor.